Pasadena Department of Transportation Receives $187,000 Bicyclist Safety Grant from State

The City of Pasadena Department of Transportation’s efforts to enhance safety for bicyclists citywide has received a financial boost thanks to a $187,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) for its Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program. The grant funds will be used for a pedestrian and bicyclist safety outreach program to help raise awareness of the dangers and consequences of vehicular speeding.

A November 2020 study on traffic patterns conducted by Department of Transportation staff found that average speeds were at least 1 to 2 miles per hour faster during post-Safer at Home Order months compared to the same time in 2019 and remains faster to this day. These increased speeds had a measurable effect on pedestrian- and bicycle-involved crash data. Transportation data from 2019-21 revealed that speeding is a growing primary collision factor in pedestrian- and bicycle-involved crashes. Unsafe speed rose as a primary collision factor in these crashes to 15.4%, up 5.5% from 2019.

Education and outreach efforts funded by the OTS grant will help promote safe driving behaviors by emphasizing the need to drive at safe speeds in order to keep all road users safe. Safety information will be distributed to community members at high-traffic locations across the city. Physical media, such as transit signage, will also be utilized, and digital outreach materials will be shared across the City’s social media channels. This grant will be administered in coordination with the OTS grant that was recently awarded to Pasadena Police Department.

The OTS grant also provides for a traffic database software upgrade that will allow transportation staff to better analyze and evaluate traffic safety behavioral data at locations where pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists travel. Both the education outreach and traffic database upgrade provide an opportunity for the City of Pasadena to potentially reduce the percentage of pedestrian- and bicyclist-involved collisions, and reduce the number of fatalities and severe injuries.

Funding for this pedestrian and bicyclist safety program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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